1.
Even in the age of Rona, no man is safe from the SEC hot seat - NIKKI
There would probably be a lot more than four open head coaching vacancies right now if not for the Coronavirus but an SEC hot seat cools down for no virus. Will Muschamp’s gone after a 2-5 start and 28-21 in his five seasons and now Vanderbilt has moved on from Derek Mason. Mason, like Muschamp, had decent success early but both programs skid the past two seasons.
Besides Jordan Rogers, which I saw posted on the Trough, I haven’t heard much or seen many folks talking about Odom being a legit candidate for either job. Bruce Feldman put together his list of top 20 candidates this cycle, headlined–naturally–by Urban Meyer. Then comes Matt Campbell, Hugh Freeze, Steve Sarkisian, Fickell, Napier and on. Lashlee at Miami, Venables at Clemson, Lea at Notre Dame and Elliott at Clemson are the only other coordinators on the list.
In case you have an athletic sub and wanna check it out:
https://theathletic.com/2228190/202...-coaching-carousel-urban-meyer-matt-campbell/
2. Burks added to Biletnikoff Award watch list - HUTCH
Although he has no shot to win it or even be named a finalist, it was still cool to see Treylon Burks added to the Biletnikoff Award watch list Monday morning.
The sophomore from Warren is enjoying the breakout season we all expected, with 39 receptions for 598 yards and six touchdowns. He leads the Razorbacks in all three categories and has an outside shot at cracking the UA’s single-season top-10 lists for each category.
To accomplish that, Burks needs 13 catches, 272 yards and one touchdown in the Razorbacks’ last two games. Considering one of those is a matchup with Alabama, it might be difficult for him to reach that yardage mark, but he needs to average only 101 yards over the two games to become just the 15th player in school history with an 800-yard season.
While he isn’t a serious contender for the Biletnikoff, Burks is certainly an All-SEC candidate. His 85.4 receiving yards per game rank fifth in the conference and fourth among wide receivers - and that doesn’t even factor in his extremely limited playing time at Mississippi State when he was dealing with an injury. Pro Football Focus gives him an 81.6 grade for the season, which ranks third among SEC receivers with at least 30 targets.
Alabama’s DeVonta Smith and Ole Miss’ Elijah Moore are essentially locks to be first-team All-SEC, but Burks absolutely deserves to be recognized as a second-team selection.
3. Play like a girl - NIKKI
I know there’s a multipage thread on the subject but it was obviously a hot topic over the weekend, so I just wanted to give my final thoughts. I know a lot of people viewed Sarah Fuller suiting up as a publicity stunt, and those folks may be right, but I don’t think it changes the fact that it’s impactful for a lot of young women out there who love football and want to see more women involved in the sport, whether that’s covering it, working for a team, scouting, or even these days coaching. People pointed to Colorado’s Katie Hnida to claim that it wasn’t significant because it’s been done before but that was also almost two decades ago. There’s a couple generations of young girls who’d never heard of Hnida and now they have because Fuller put on the uniform for one game.
Fuller wasn’t asked to do much on Saturday and I, like many others, would’ve loved to see her actually impact the game but at the same time, she’s a soccer player who hasn’t trained her whole life to kick a football, so I understood why her role was limited (that and Vanderbilt can hardly move down the field).
We may never see a female in any role other than kicker on a college team, I’m not too prideful to admit that women don’t have the physical makeup to be successful in football at a high level but there’s no reason why a little girl watching Fuller on Saturday couldn’t train exactly like any young boy could and become a top notch kicker in college or even in the NFL some day.
In the bigger picture, it’s not really about what Fuller did or didn’t do on the field. Seeing her in a uniform will encourage girls to join their middle or high school football teams and why shouldn’t they? I know I would’ve if my school growing up had football and I know I’d be even more knowledgeable on the sport if I had.
4. Vito Appreciation Post - HUTCH
There is no doubt that Arkansas’ special teams has been a disappointment this season. There’s no need to rehash everything that’s happened on that unit. Y’all know - y’all witnessed it.
One aspect of special teams that has been a pleasant surprise has been on kickoffs. Freshman Vito Calvaruso is putting kicks into the end zone for touchbacks at a rate never before seen at Arkansas.
I touched on this in my weekly Freshman Report, but that published the day after Thanksgiving and some of you may have still been in a food coma and missed it. With all five of his kickoffs against LSU going into the end zone, his touchback percentage for the season is now 71.1 percent.
Although that ranks just seventh in the SEC this year, it is 15th nationally and the highest mark by an Arkansas kicker in the past decade-plus. Zach Hocker had the previous high at 68.0 percent in 2013. (It’s difficult to compare this statistic across eras because the kickoff spot was moved up five yards in 2012 and rules recently allowed for fair-catch touchbacks on kickoffs caught between the goal line and the 25.)
Sure, he’s had three kickoffs out of bounds, which is tied for the second most in the conference, but those kind of inconsistencies are expected with true freshmen. You also expect them to get better as the season progresses and that has happened with Calvaruso.
In the Razorbacks’ first three games of the season, he had just four touchbacks on 12 attempts (33.3%). In the five games since then, he has 23 touchbacks on 26 attempts (88.5%). How good is 88.5 percent? Well, if he had maintained that percentage for the entire season, it would rank fifth nationally.
As it stands, his 71.1 percent ranks second among all FBS freshmen, behind only Texas A&M’s Caden Davis (87.5%).
5. The Hoop Hogs are alright - NIKKI
I didn’t cover the Hogs’ season opener since I was on my way to Houston but after highlights of that game and covering the second one Saturday, I’m really liking what I’m seeing from Musselman’s second year squad. They have so many weapons that can score in a number of ways, it’s going to be very tough to game plan against. I liked Muss cutting down the rotation to ride with the hot hands but I’m curious to see how the minutes disperse throughout the season as the younger guys get more familiar with the system.
The Hogs are the only 2-win team so far in the SEC and Florida, Ole Miss, and Tennessee haven’t played a game yet. Kentucky, SC, Auburn and LSU all have an early loss. Kentucky plays Kansas tomorrow night.
www.espn.com
www.vegasinsider.com
arkansas.rivals.com
